CHAPTER XIII. 



WORKERS IN WOODCRAFT. 

 I. 



THE gamekeeper's cottage stands at the end 

 of the oak lane. An orchard surrounds his 

 dwelling, the brown boughs now drooping with 

 ripened fruit. Under an overhanging sycamore 

 is a kennel of silky-coated setters and a brace of 

 spaniels. The former have beautifully-domed 

 heads and large soft eyes. The spaniels with 

 their pendulous ears are a black and a brown. 

 Pheasant pens are scattered about the orchard, 

 each containing half-a-dozen birds. In a disused 

 shed are traps for taking game, and nets and 

 snares found in rabbit runs or taken from 

 poachers. The keeper does not always take 

 these engines when he finds them, but waits 

 quietly until they are visited by the "moucher;" 

 then he makes a double capture. Few of the 

 poachers, however, leave their traps after dark, 

 and only the casual is caught in this way. At 

 the other end of the orchard divisional boxes are 

 ranged round an old barn-like building where 

 pheasants' eggs are hatched. A shaggy terrier, 



